You might know Mohamed Al-Fayed from his association with Princess Diana, since his son, Emad El-Din "Dodi" Mohamed Fayed, was dating the royal when they died in a tragic 1997 car crash. But the late Harrods owner—who died in 2023 at age 94—has now been accused of sexually assaulting multiple women.
A new BBC documentary, Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods, reveals that five former employees of the luxury department store were raped by Al-Fayed, with more coming forward after the news outlet's story was published.
The BBC continued that it has "heard testimony from more than 20 female ex-employees" who claim Al-Fayed "sexually assaulted or raped them."
“Mohamed Al-Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass whatsoever,” one former employee—who said she was raped by the Harrods boss when she was a teenager—told the BBC.
The victim called the store's employees Al-Fayed's “playthings," adding, “We were all so scared. He actively cultivated fear. If he said ‘jump’ employees would ask ‘how high.'"
The womens' accounts show a man who "would regularly tour the department store's vast sales floors and identify young female assistants he found attractive" in order to promote them to work in his office.
Per the BBC, the reported assaults didn't just take place in London, but also in Paris, St Tropez and Abu Dhabi.
One woman was even raped at Villa Windsor in Paris, the former home of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, which Al-Fayed had purchased.
The victim, named Gemma, told the BBC Al-Fayed woke her up while wearing "just a silk dressing gown."
“I told him, ‘no, I don't want you to.' And he proceeded to just keep trying to get in the bed, at which point he was kind of on top of me and [I] really couldn't move anywhere," Gemma said, sharing that he went on to rape her.
And while this isn't the first time Al-Fayed was accused of sexual assault—women spoke out with allegations in 1997, 2008 and 2017—the media outlet called the new claims "of unprecedented scale and seriousness."
The Egyptian-born billionaire was portrayed in a much more positive light in the final two series of Netflix's The Crown as Princess Diana navigated her new relationship with his son, Dodi.
“That makes me angry, people shouldn't remember him like that. It's not how he was," one former Harrods employee, who worked as Al-Fayed's personal assistant, told the BBC.
“He was vile,” she added, with the news outlet sharing that Al-Fayed "tried to rape her more than once."
If you, or someone you know, has been a victim of sexual assault or harassment and would like help, visit RAINN.org.
